2 Escaped South Korean Prisoners Kill Themselves During Standoff

Two escaped South Korean prisoners killed themselves with a revolver today rather than surrender to police approaching their lakeside hide-out in helicopters and rubber boats.

The shootings ended a 36-hour chase for three convicted murderers who broke out of their jail early Thursday by sawing through bars in their cell, police said. Hundreds of police were mobilized for the manhunt.

One escapee was caught near the rural lake outside the provincial city of Taejon. When police found him, he surrendered peacefully and asked for food, police said.

The other two--Park Bong Sun, 30, and Shin Kwang Jae, 21--crossed the lake aboard a stolen boat but were trapped by a dozen sharpshooters on the shore. Civilians, including news photographers, witnessed the dramatic lakeside standoff.

The two rejected repeated calls to surrender, with Park holding the revolver to his head and threatening to shoot himself. As police approached in helicopters and rubber boats, Park fired a bullet into his head.

Shin then took the gun and fired a bullet into his chest. He died on the way to a hospital.

The revolver had been stolen from a police officer earlier today, when the escapees, armed with a knife, had been stopped for questioning at a bus terminal in Taejon, 100 miles south of Seoul.

A police officer was stabbed in the neck and seriously wounded during that confrontation.